Flood insurance – getting the right cover

Flooding is becoming increasingly common in the UK – and apart from the heartache and hassle, the cost of cleaning up can be huge.Insurance is advisable, especially if you live in a high-risk area and the introduction of Flood Re means affordable insurance is easier to find than before. Here’s the low-down on flood insurance and how to get it at a price you can afford.

What is flood insurance?

Use the GOV.UK website to find out if an area at risk of flooding and if insurance premiums in the area might be affected.

Flood insurance is normally included as a standard part of your buildings insurance, but it won’t cover your contents unless you also have a home contents insurance policy.

You may need flood insurance in case of:

A river or canal bursting its banks

Seawater flooding due to storms and/or a high tide, and

Surface water or rapid groundwater flooding as a result of heavy rainfall or a burst pipe

What does flood insurance cover you for?

Flood insurance covers the costs of:

Drying out, repairing and restoring your property and its fixtures and fittings

Repair or replacement of damaged furniture and belongings

Removing debris

Professional fees (eg solicitors, architects, surveyors)

Alternative accommodation while you can’t live in your home

Things you might not be covered for

Replacing all your damaged belongings

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If you’ve been flooded, you can start cleaning as soon as you like – you don’t need to wait until your insurer has assessed the damage. But, do take photograph of damaged goods and keep samples of things like carpets and furnishings to show your insurer.

When it comes to claiming for damaged belongings, the amount your insurance company will pay out depends on the type of contents insurance you have.

New for old – If you have a ‘new for old’ policy, your insurance company should pay out enough to replace all damaged items with new equivalent items (other than clothes, where there’s usually a deduction for wear and tear). Most policies offer this.

Indemnity cover – If you have this type of policy, you’ll only get the value of your possessions before the flood occurred. So, if your sofa needs replacing at a cost of £2,000, you will only get what the old one was worth, which might only be £200.

Alternative accommodation

Think carefully about the level of cover you take out. If your cover is too low, you might need to move back into your home before the repairs are finished or foot part of the bill for alternative accommodation.

Do you need flood insurance?

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“There’s nobody that’s not at risk of flooding, even people that live on top of a hill.”

If you are struggling to find insurance cover that is affordable, Flood Re may be able to help you. Flood Re has been set up as a joint government and insurance industry initiative that works behind the scenes to help insurance providers offer more affordable policies to households with eligible properties affected by flooding.

Because of the high cost of clean-up and repairs following a flood, it’s important to have insurance for your home and its contents.

Your mortgage company usually insists on you taking out buildings insurance, which will often include flood cover

Although contents insurance isn’t compulsory, the cost of replacing everything in your home would be so high that it’s almost always a good idea to have contents cover

Check whether you’re covered in the event of a flood

Check all the details in your buildings and contents insurance policies that relate to flooding and make sure you have enough cover to protect you in the event of a flood. Even if your insurance isn’t up for renewal, it’s worth checking. Call your insurance company to query anything you’re not sure about.

New laws mean that it’s up to insurance companies to ask the right questions about what they want to know. But if your property has a history of flooding, you should inform your insurance company – even if they don’t ask. The last thing you need is a hitch if you ever need to make a claim

Get specialist help

Use a specialist broker

An insurance broker can help you negotiate with insurers and arrange cover, if your property is not eligible to be included within Flood Re. The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) can help you locate an insurance broker who specialises in flood risk.

Brokers don’t normally charge you a fee for their services – they get paid commission by the insurance company instead.

Pay for a ‘flood risk assessment’

This will help present your risk profile to insurance companies in the best possible light and will highlight things you can do to reduce the risk. To increase the chance of insurance companies being able to make use of the information, make sure that the survey is as detailed as possible, and includes facts and figures about the level of flood risk to the property.